Zimbabwe
Student Profile
Assumita Chiremba
University of Zimbabwe
Regional Academy
Established September 2002
Assumita Chiremba has been well-versed in the culture of networking since she was a young girl -- social networking, that is to say. As a child growing up in rural Chivhu, Zimbabwe in the 1970s, Assumita would walk with her catholic family to the local convent every week to sell their family-made pottery. At these weekly markets, she and her 6 brothers and sisters learned the valuable lesson of social networking and communicating, and began to incorporate these intangible tools into other areas of their lives. For Assumita, the powerful example of social networking in her youth inspired her to pursue a career in computer networking. "My mother started me on the path to networking; she was so persistent in her idea of local marketing and social networking in our village, and I am just like that in my idea of technical networking. I just transferred her idea to my career interests," explains Assumita.
In primary and secondary school, Assumita attended both rural and urban schools, focusing on mathematics and the technical sciences. Her 3 sisters remained interested in pottery and literature, while Assumita took more of an interest in computers and engineering. In the early 1980s she lived with her oldest brother, who was participating in the Zimbabwean Liberation struggle as an air force pilot, where she developed an even stronger interest in computers. In 1989 she completed her Ordinary level, and went on to obtain a diploma certificate in Mechanical Drafting & Design. Soon thereafter in 1992 Assumita applied for an apprenticeship as an electrical fitter with the local utility company. At this point, Assumita was pregnant with her daughter, Tatenda, but that didn't stop her from filling her post nor did it dissuade her from continuing to pursue her technical studies. "Do you know what my mother said to me when I started the electrical apprenticeship and she learned that I was pregnant?" exclaims Assumita, "She asked me if I was going to carry my baby up and down the ladders. I told her yes." And she did, right up until the ninth month. This unlikely accomplishment encouraged Assumita because she realized that with a lot of discipline and courage, one can overcome any obstacle.
After the birth of her daughter, Assumita enrolled in the Women's University in Africa, a new university launched in Zimbabwe in September 2002 for the development and empowerment of women in academia. She joined the pioneering university as an undergraduate student in Management & Entrepreneurial Development with an aim to study engineering and computer networking. It was during this 3-year program that Assumita discovered the Cisco Networking Academy Program at the University of Zimbabwe. The University of Zimbabwe had been recently selected in 2002 as a new site for Cisco-ITU Internet Training Centers Initiative. Assumita read the advertisement in the local Sunday Times newspaper and phoned the University right away. She recalls, "I told myself that this was my chance, this was going to finally satisfy my career aspirations."
Assumita did not let this opportunity go to waste. During her time spent at the Academy, she not only took advantage of the standard web-based CCNA curriculum and hands-on lab exercises, but also challenged herself to conceptualize more complex networking solutions. She attests to the fact that "no two days at the Academy are the same". In addition, she firmly believes that the Academy Program enhances students' abilities to acquire strategic roles to effectively drive and manage IT networking functions within organizations". When asked about her experience in the Academy Program, Assumita shares, "The Academy Program has helped me to see beyond the horizon of computing and ICT; it is a very challenging and stimulating place, where one's studies are put to the test and where people can learn with freedom. It has allowed me to make better decisions in both my academic and personal life."
As one of the Academy's leading female students, Assumita has earned a very important role among her peers – she is called the "Class Technician", and as such, continues to inspire other women who are also interested in IT studies. "The Academy Program has brought so much satisfaction and discipline to me, and now I am "walking tall" despite my short height! It is the catalyst that enabled me to find the instruments on which to play the music within me," she muses. After having completed CCNA courses 1-4, she now volunteers as an intern at the Academy to help mentor other students. Every Saturday she goes to the Academy to help with the labs and presentations, and she has even begun to offer tutorials to female students to help them with their International Computer Driving License (ICDL) modules. Assumita is personally concerned about female career guidance in Zimbabwe. "I am a 32-year old woman in an assumed 'man-environment', and I am among the first 6 Zimbabwean females to graduate from the Cisco Networking Academy Program. Female participation is very low right now in the IT Networking job market because females are not fully recognized for their decision-making capabilities. I believe that women need more recognition in this area so that they will choose this career path earlier on in their schooling." After graduation from the Women's University in Africa, Assumita would like to work in Networking Consulting or in ICT Research & Development.
Apart from her job at the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, her undergraduate university studies, and her internship at the University of Zimbabwe Cisco Academy, Assumita also makes significant time to raise her 12-year old daughter, Tatenda. As a single mother, Assumita wants to spend as much time as she can with Tatenda to encourage her talents and to develop her enthusiasm for life's challenges. "I always tell her to be confident and determined in the goals that she sets for herself," tells Assumita. And just has Assumita has a passion for networking and a strong desire to discover new boundaries, Tatenda is also proving to be just as ambitious as her mother. "Tatenda is so fascinated with 'my Cisco'," says Assumita. "Each time that she sees me busy working on a borrowed laptop with my router software she asks, "Mummy, do you want me to do Cisco when I grow up?" What a daughter! I don't know how she is going to choose between 'routers' and pottery!"